For 50 years, the Preda Foundation has been a leading child rights organisation with a long successful history of rescuing, protecting, healing and empowering abused and trafficked girls, saving innocent boys from unjust incarceration in jails, and giving a new life of freedom through residential care services with therapy and education.
The Preda Foundation operates four residential therapeutic homes in the Philippines: two for girls and two for boys.
Writing about the anniversary, Columban missionary Fr Shay Cullen said: “It is 50 years since I started the Preda Foundation as part of my mission assignment to Olongapo City in September 1969. Preda is still going strong and healing and finding justice for more than 200 children every year and winning 18 to 20 convictions every year of their abusers.”
The Foundation is involved in educating teachers and duty bearers on childrens’ rights. There are 53 professional staff on the Preda team and 120 children in care.
The Preda Foundation has also been instrumental in lobbying for new child protection laws since the passing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. Today, the Foundation has an extensive community and social media-based advocacy programme on preventive education.
The Preda Foundation has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize over the years and it has won several international human rights awards. It coordinates with many national and international partners including several United Nations’ agencies.
Responding to the news of the 50th anniversary celebration, Columban JPIC Coordiantor, Amy Echeverria said, “Please join me in congratulating Fr Shay and PREDA on all the lives that have been touched for immense work of healing, justice, and hope.”
See more about the work of the Preda Foundation here: